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Anyone ever seen one of these before?

It is purported to be a pre-Yuan Xinjiang Black Nephrite Cicada.

Anyone want to venture a guess from the period it's from?

hi Tim,

i've never seen total-black nephrite before and i'm not sure it's really exist.
i guess this cicada pendant is contemporary carving.


regards,
senztone

Here's a huge carved piece of Khotan black nephrite for sale just to show you it exists: http://bernsteinjadeart.com/3452SQ.html

Also, there is a famous double cat pendant in the San Francisco Asian art Museum where one half is black nephrite and the other half is white nephrite from the same stone.

The resolution, color and clarity of these two photos are just good enough to closely examine this cicada. I hate to call anything modern without being able to see it closely but the tool marks on this cicada looks modern to me especially those holes. Therefore I believe this cicada is less than 20 years old.

This piece is also not black, more a dark green color. Possibly nephrite but also can be serpentine. Hard to tell with the photos. What is its size and weight?

Bill

Bill,

Here's a better photo. The problem is the size is limited to under 100K and at close range without the use of my macro lens which doesn't work with my digital camera it is hard to get great photos with proper coloring.

L - 1 13/16"
W - 1 1/16"
T - 5/8"

I wish I could do an extreme close-up to show the tool marks I can see with a 10x loupe to see if they are correct.

Do you have examples of tool marks for the dots that are proper for pre-Yuan that you can show me, so I can match them?

Thanks!
Tim

Hi, Tim:

Thanks for posting more pictures of your jade cicada. I know your strong desire in proving that this indeed a pre-Yaun piece. Very often, I had the same desire in proving some of my pieces are indeed "old" and I was very offended when some of my pieces were being labeled as "modern" without any explanations or general agreement in what exactly "modern" means and what exactly "modern tool marks" are. Of course, there are a few jade collectors here who can consistently distinguish modern pieces from archaic pieces. However, very often either they do not want to share or do not know in how to explain why a piece is indeed modern. Therefore it can be indeed very frustrated.

Due to the low resolution of the pictures allowed to be posted here. I cannot enlarge the pictures of your cicada and be able to examine the tool marks clearly. However, from what I can see, they do not convince me that they were made with manual carving tools. Carving lines left by manual tu are always wide in the middle and narrower at each end. If you can find any deep grooves to examine, deep grooves left by modern high speed tools would be V-shaped while those left by manaul tools would be U-shaped. I did see tool marks from jade carvings from different dynasty in one of the Chinese web site but I could not locate that web site right away. When I find them I would post them here. It is really not easy to find any jade carvings that are pre-Yuan. I believe a few jade collectors in this forum may have some, you can ask if they would post a close up of the tool marks here.

Therefore I do not believe your piece is made before early 60s. Most probably late 60s, 70s or 80s, but it was probably not made modernly.

The jade material also does not look black to me, more a dark green. It is very possible it is nephrite but there is a slight possibility it may be old serpentine material. I have seen serpentine of that color before. Only a specific gravity test can tell you; a hardness test may not tell you (some serpentine can pass the hardness test).

I do not believe it is Hetian jade though. Although there are indeed black heitan nephrite jade and they are supposedly lower grade than white, celadon color hetain jade, but they are really difficult to find. Even regular genuine black nephrite jade is impossible to find, I only have a few examples myself.

Of course, I can be wrong and therefore please forgive me.

Thanks for sharing.


Bill

I need to have a closer looks of the left section of the first picture. The band going across with the incisions. If you could take a close up of that, please.
I like the workmanship which is shown on the second photo.
Ernest

Dear Tim

Absolutely not what you think.

Have fun
Anita mui

Why isn't it what I think?

I'm curious is there a place on this forum where everyone lists their expertise and years of collecting experience?

I've seen many people on this forum that post a lot and seem to be knowledgeable, but experience is not listed.

Thanks!

Dear Tim

The heading of your post is "Xinjiang Black Nephrite Cicada"...what does your "Xinjiang Black Nephrite" really mean? I assumed that your dark green nephrite is being called "black jade".

I'm not color blind, and that pararel lines modern tools are on the head of cicada with many crude work marks, and sloppy cuts left on the piece, how can I say it is authentic which seems to be far from the reality.

Pls keep the nice work, ancient artesans had plenty of time to create their works, crude works would not bring any good money as well as reputation.

Have fun
Anita Mui

Ernest,

Here is a better shot of the band you referred to.

If you gave me your email address I could send a full 600K + resolution picture instead of this 100K- as required by the forum.

Tim

Hey Tim,

Nice looking Cicada!
However it is a modern reproduction or should I say made with modern tools. For the amount of time it would have taken an ancient carver to do this piece they would not have done such a sloppy job of carving. If you look at most of the curved carved lines, they are all made of straight line cuts.
Plus to me the straight lines on the back would have all been more evenly spaced. A craftsman would not make as many mistakes if he expected to get paid well for the hundreds of hours this would have taken then.
But it's still a nice piece!

Jim

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